Freed Menem is back on campaign trail

By Sophie Arie in Buenos Aires

12:01AM GMT 22 Nov 2001

THE former Argentine president Carlos Menem hit the presidential campaign trail yesterday after he was released from nearly six months under house arrest for allegedly masterminding illegal arms sales to Croatia and Ecuador in the early 1990s.

He headed for his home province of La Rioja to greet his euphoric, drum-beating supporters from the balcony of the provincial government building. A welcome was being prepared under the scorching summer sun with barbecues and champagne.

The supreme court ruled earlier this week that the existence of the group could not be proven and Mr Menem and his Chilean wife, Cecilia Bolocco, a former beauty queen, swept out of the gates of his prison home behind tinted windows several hours later.

Mr Menem, 71, still faces charges related to the arms sales case. He is accused of failing to fulfil his public duty, embezzling public funds and signing false documents.

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Between 1991 and 1995, he signed four orders for arms sales to Venezuela and Panama, which did not have an army at the time. The weapons ended up in Ecuador and Croatia.

The former president, known as Doctor Menem to his friends and El Chorro (The Robber) or El Turco (the Turk, for his Middle Eastern family origins) to others, has always maintained he was innocent and that the charges were trumped up in a political campaign to bring him down.

Although he is still facing other charges, they were minor and he could not be held in custody on them. On the news of his release, Mr Menem said he would be back on the political scene "without bitterness or hatred and to work for Argentina".

Before leaving Buenos Aires, he visited the grave of his son, Carlos, killed in a suspicious helicopter crash in 1995, and went on to see the former army chief, Martin Balza, detained on arms trafficking charges.

He has frequently declared his ambition to return to power in 2003 and posters saying "Take care of Menem. Argentina needs him" are plastered over the entrance to his prison home where supporters had kept a vigil since his arrest.